What’s most impressive in Winback’s design is it’s dedication to it’s groundbreaking ideas. For being the first third-person cover-based shooter, it’s extremely confident in a gameplay philosophy that has never been attempted. All the combat is no-frills cover shooting, and it exceeds at it better than any game since. The third-person cover-shooter genre was pioneered and simultaneously peaked at the exact same time; the absolute zenith of the genre.

Yes, Winback: Covert Operations is that good.

Pulling off consecutive headshots in Winback is a state of gaming euphoria only matched by the Issen in Onimusha or counter launchers in God Hand; A technique that requires finesse over such a simple mechanic. You can either try subtlety adjusting the thumbstick with precise movements, or just hold up and time your shots exactly depending on the cover you are exiting from. Either way, it’s immensely satisfying. Enemies can eat more than half a clip from your handgun if you don’t hit the head. Standing out of cover while dumping bullets down range is a recipe for taking heavy damage. You die quickly in Winback. You will not survive in the long-term if you run out of cover and dive around like Max Payne.

One of my favorite things a game can do is incentivize the best way to play. The most fun way to play should also be the most effective way, and this is certainly the case with Winback. Not only does Winback reward extra points for headshots (known as “lethal hits”) at the end of each level, but it’s also the most effective way to ensure your survival through each stage. Staying in cover, meticulously popping off quick headshots, limiting your exposure to enemies, choosing the most effective weaponry for the situation and positioning yourself in a preeminent line of sight in the level geometry is not only paramount to survival, but also the most rewarding way to play.

Another impressive aspect of Winback is the classic Japanese-style level design that they have flawlessly intertwined with the addicting combat. While not being a confusing game, the level design isn’t a linear batch of corridors filled with chest-high walls like you might expect. Winback has puzzles, backtracking, and smart level layouts that keep the experience from becoming stagnant. Reoccurring mechanics such as destructible boxes, switches, and laser traps combine together to create some fun little brain teasers in between the encounters. I cannot stress enough how brilliantly paced Winback is. While the game never changes substantially, it does continue to combine its’ gameplay elements, as sparse as they are, in new and engaging ways.

However, I do believe that Winback could have benefited from a bit more variety. What's here is near flawless, blasting through a dynamic array of ever-changing combat encounters, escalating puzzles, and the occasional boss battle, but that is all there is to the game. Winback manages to avoid becoming boring or tedious; in fact, it remains far from it. However, the game is surprisingly long, clocking in at over 12 hours. Winback could have been further enriched with the inclusion of another puzzle element to add to the mix, some sort of reoccurring mini-game, or even a few player-influenced set-pieces.

While the environments here lean on the drab side, with office buildings, factories, and sewers sharing a generic and similar color pallet, the arcade aesthetic shines through to dampen the environment’s shortcomings. Enemies are color coordinated and act differently depending on the color. Some might have different weapons while others may be more aggressive and rush you. Additionally, where you shoot enemies dictates the color of the hit effect. Even the UI is arcadey, with individual bullets representing your ammo count. Its all obviously inspired by rail gun shooters at the time, such as Time Crisis and Virtua Cop. In a lot of ways, Winback is Time Crisis in third-person form.

Winback is still the best cover-based shooter because it avoids all the pitfalls that made all the 7th generation chaff so uninteresting – no waiting around in cover for regenerating health to come back, no tedious encounters that feel identical to the last, and no uninvolved scripted events. It maintained player agency and effective level-design, establishing itself as the pinnacle of a genre yet to be fully realized.

Also, please don’t play the PS2 version. Now that I’ve played the N64 version, I realize how brutal some of the changes are. The AI is terrible for the level design and achieving headshots has had all the skill stripped out of it. The PS2 version is really not worth it. Play the N64 version or don’t play it at all.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on this site but I’m glad to be back. Between my non-stop playing of fighting games such as SF6 and MK1 and replaying the MGS series due to the remaster, I haven’t played much new in a while. But I’m back, and hopefully here to stay.

Anyway, RoboCop. This game is good, albeit a tad shallow unfortunately.

As a fan of the source material, RC masterfully encapsulates the essence of the Robocop universe. This is a perfect example of how to make a licensed game, as every minute detail is captured. Even the layout of the precinct is consistent with the movie. The narrative of RC is also conforming to the classic films. Yet again the OCP are a multifaceted private mega-corporation that own Detroit. RoboCop struggles with his humanity as he fights in the name of Justice for the citizens of Old Detroit. It’s another great story in the universe of RoboCop and mirrors the thematic themes of the franchise perfectly.

The gameplay even represents RoboCop well. This is a gory game, and RoboCop is not moving at breakneck speeds. The combat is methodical and precise. Enemies can take dozens of body shots, but their heads and crouches explode with one well placed bullet from your auto-9. RoboCop is a walking tank peaking around corners and using various abilities that you periodically unlock through skill points. Unfortunately, that’s where the positives of the gunplay end, as this combat is shallow.

There’s not much player agency. The player feedback is great and the spectacle of the gore will dazzle players (myself included), but underneath the surface is combat that fails to impress at a high level. None of your abilities are vital until the endgame. Regular enemies are far too easy and later enemies are far too spongy. All you’ll be doing is waiting in cover and then peaking out once a useful ability such as the shield or slow-motion has recharged. You can do some cool stuff against regular goons such as throwing them into each other and chaining moves together, but by the end of the game, this will be impractical as you’ll be shredded for giving more than 2 enemies a line of sight at you. This is one of my pet peeves. The best way to play should be the most fun way. Unfortunately in RC, this isn’t the case.

It’s not all combat however. Much like Terminator: Resistance, Teyon’s previous game, RoboCop: Rogue City is an action-RPG.
RC introduces a diverse range of crime scene investigations and side quests, offering players a variety of activities. While the storytelling and world-building during these quests is mostly excellent, the player engagement is lacking. Your decisions do matter and they will impact future events, but the missions themselves are formulaic. The player will mostly be walking around and scanning various points of interest with shootouts dispersed intermittently. It’s not bad whatsoever, but there’s not much going on here gameplay wise. It offers a smooth experience that’s likely not to bore you, but ultimately lacks depth.

I was expecting a bit more from this release. After the flawed yet charming Terminator: Resistance, I figured Teyon would break through to deliver a modern classic. The storytelling and world building really does the heavy-lifting here. Along with its impressive respect for the source material, it’s the only aspect of the game that soars above mediocrity. While Robocop: Rogue City is wholly competent and offers generous variety, the main gameplay is unfortunately shallow and inconsequential. Don’t let my 6/10 score deter you however, especially if your a fan of the films. Over my 16 or so hours, I was never bored or was wishing to play something else. It accomplishes that at the very least.

6/10

A game you’ll want to like more than you can

The subject matter of Manhunt is one I’m enthralled with. Mock found footage snuff films such as August Underground are not good films whatsoever, but they are quite peculiar. I’ve always been morbidly curious in such things and I can’t quite put a finger on why. Maybe it’s a fascination with death, maybe it’s just a desire to see how far the gore can go. Either way, these low quality amateur films have an indescribable atmosphere. It’s quaint, yet menacing. They are without polish, but that’s what makes it so raw and intense. There’s no expert cinematography or editing to create a coherent film. It’s just vile acts and you’re witnessing it. Manhunt, through its expert sound design and brilliant aesthetic, captures this atmosphere flawlessly.

It all starts with the manual. It reads like a magazine for a snuff film site, complete with accurate pseudonyms such as “Mr. nasty”. Then there’s the main menu. It looks and functions like a VHS tape, and the haunting score sets up Manhunt’s dismal aura.

The gore in Manhunt has been topped twice over, but the context of the gore has not. You’ve seen ridiculous fatalities in Mortal Kombat way gorier than anything found in Manhunt, but Manhunt’s snuff film design makes the player feel it even more. The sound design ensure you feel every bone break, every decapitation, and every gargle of blood. The atmosphere creates a melancholic sensation in the player. It’s not a celebration of how far violence can be pushed, although pushing limits is part of its appeal. Manhunt is more of grim reminder of the depravity that goes on in this world.

The banter the Hunters have in this game is great. Each gang is very distinct. There’s white supremacists, mental hospital patients, and those that continually repeat lines of domestic abuse. They all add a ton of personality to each section and help with the variety. Starkweather, the director behind the twisted snuff films the player is participating in, also has lines that hint towards his debauchery. He’s the type of guy to get his rocks off to these brutal murders. There’s tons of lines in this game. Each playthrough you’re likely to hear something new.

The gameplay in Manhunt however isn’t amazing. What starts as an intense game of hide and seek turns into a bad third-person shooter filled with trial and error.

The stealth in Manhunt is fairly well constructed, but unfortunately has simple exploits that dampen its impact. Manhunt has a clear indications of how quiet and shrouded in darkness you are. The game will never lie to you. Finding pockets of darkness makes you invisible unless an enemy runs right into you which can only happen when they’re on alert. The mini map shows enemies you have a sight line on or who are making noise. Making a loud noise will alert enemies to your position. This is where the exploit is. It’s way too powerful to alert enemies while hiding in the dark. Through this mechanic, it doesn’t even matter how the game designers set up the patrols for the hunters. They’ll always come running, and as soon as they turn around you execute them. Sometimes more than one will come and you’ll have to think on the fly, but generally, Manhunt is a exploitable and simple game.

The levels have some nice open design throughout. Some levels are completely linear which is disappointing, but a few such as White Trash or Mouth of Madness have open areas with many enemies. This is where the game is at its best because it isn’t easy and it’s engaging to figure out the best way to tackle the challenge.

Then there’s the third-person shooting. Good lord. Now, I want to preface this by saying I’m not against the third-person shooting in theory. Manhunt is a fairly long game. If it was all slow-paced stealth, it would have suffered. However in practice, it’s terrible. The shooting sections keep what makes Manhunt memorable. The soundtrack and intensity is still there through these sections, but the shooting is bad. You die in very few shots, so shooting without cover is usually suicide. It feels like the only way to succeed in these sections is to use exploits or go through the motion of trial and error. It’s boring and tiring. Enemies stop following the rules and just stand behind cover. A lot of sections feel like the only way to win is to shoot one guy and then run to darkness, rinse and repeat. It’s not engaging or fun.

Manhunt means a lot to me. It’s the only game I can think of that fits this niche of horror. But when it’s all said and done, I’m able to look past the my nostalgia and fondness of the subject matter to tell you that the gameplay is below average. Manhunt is a chore to get through at times. The second half has the worst dip in quality I’ve seen outside of Resident Evil 7. But the atmosphere is peak. It’s one of my favorite aesthetics ever in a video game. It kept me playing until the conclusion, once again.

6/10

Mediocre DMC clone

Spawn: Armageddon starts off well enough. The CG cutscenes look good and the presentation is quite nice.

The combat is mixed. It’s not without good ideas, but it fails to push the player to engage with its systems in a dynamic way most of the time. There’s a technique bonus for killing enemies a certain way. Getting this bonus will reward extra souls for powering up Spawn and help achieve a higher ranking. While most of the time going for the technique bonus is also the most effective way to kill enemies, sometimes it’s completely impractical to go for. Enemies like the Angelic Warriors, require a counter attack when undoubtedly the most effective strategy is ranged attacks. But the system works rather well overall. The game does a good job of throwing multiple types of foes at the same time, causing the player to focus down the more threatening enemies.

There’s some technical issues with the combat as well. Inputs constantly get eaten. There seems to be no input buffer. Much like DMC, jumping is your best defensive option. Jumping after attacking doesn’t work most of the time. This makes boss fights painful. The camera is a constant hindrance. It gets stuck on the walls and trapped underneath platforms obscuring the action completely.

The level design is bad. Bland open environments similar to Devil May Cry 2. There’s awesome mechanics such as the double jump, gliding, wall jumping, and grappling, but the levels hardly take advantage of this. There’s a few levels that do, but Spawn: Armageddon ultimately fails to combine its platforming mechanics into level structures.

Spawn: Armageddon isn’t a good game, but it isn’t a bad one either. If you’re a fan of the source material, you’ll likely enjoy your time. It has tons of similarities to Devil May Cry 2 but it’s a much better game. It’s the type of game where if you bought it when it came out, you wouldn’t have been disappointed, you just wouldn’t be blown away.

5/10

The most jank 6th gen game I’ve played

Red Ninja: End of Honor’s problems are apparent as soon as you start the tutorial. The camera is inverted horizontally, which is a nightmare. Your character, Kurenai, is far too fast. She runs around like a madman while turning in any direction results in the camera spinning all over the place, disorienting the player. There’s also so many inconsistencies with the controls. Crouching is a hold while getting on a wall is toggle. You also can’t go into crouch mode while moving, which doesn’t sound that bad, but it destroyed the flow and is impossible to get used to. When locked on to an enemy, the A button (X on PlayStation) now rolls, but only sometimes? Sometimes it jumps and sometimes it rolls. The control scheme is also terrible. Since the crouch button is B and Attack is X, it’s impossible to press both at the same time without using a claw-shaped hand.

There’s also wall running in this game. Words cannot describe how bad it is, but I’m going to try. While Kurenai runs, she gradually builds up speed and once you reach max speed, she can run on walls. The problem is that you need to steer her on the wall as well as aim her at the right angle into the wall. For example, let’s say you’re holding up on the thumbstick. As soon as she starts running on the wall, you must IMMEDIATELY hold the direction you need to go (left or right) or she’ll just slip off the wall. It takes dozens of attempts at every wall running portion.

So what we have here is a clusterfuck of jank. Every aspect of controlling Kurenai is working against you, except the grappling hook. At least that seems to work well and has some nice momentum to it. I’m not the type to get filtered by jank. I like jank games more than the next guy, but this is shit.

It’s not even worth talking about any other aspect of the game. It’s completely ruined by the camera and controls. Red Ninja’s faults are so fundamental and basic that aspects like level design, AI, balance, etc. don’t even factor into the quality of the game. From what I played, it was too linear. Stealth games without some sort of open ended design fail because there’s needs to be multiple approaches. Having only one way to tackle a challenge makes for poor replay value and a lack of player agency. The balance is terrible as well. Kurenai’s tetsugen is extremely powerful, making the use of stealth more of a hindrance than a vital mechanic.

There’s nothing redeeming about Red Ninja: End of Honor besides the sex appeal of the leading lady. It’s a shameless rip-off of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven and doesn’t even come close. Red Ninja is the most mechanically flawed game I have ever played.

2/10

Not going to put too much effort into this review. Despite its about 5 hour campaign this slog exhausted me.

This game doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It’s set up to be a stealthy and methodical cover shooter using your silenced weapon, melee takedown and holograms to distract enemies. The problem is none of this comes together because the stealth is totally half-baked. Enemy sight lines are totally inconsistent and it becomes frustrating guessing if they’ll see you. There’s also not much incentive to play stealthy since it’s slow, janky and boring and it’s much easier to run and gun through each mission.
The problem then becomes run and gunning sucks too because every animation is sooo slow and if you accidentally cycle to switch to the incorrect weapon you have to sit through the laughably slow animation with no way to cancel. The guns are pretty standard and the shooting is fine but the game clearly doesnt want you to play fast paced. The grenade throwing animation is also painfully slow and jank. Also they couldn’t update to a weapon wheel or tighten up any of these animations in a remaster??
There are some good ideas with a turret you can put down to distract foes so you can flank but the AI is mostly retarded (they will see their comrade 2 feet in front of them get sniped and not react or won’t run away from grenades.)
The gameplay just feels like it’s being pulled in two directions with neither of them being fully developed which leaves the player in a weird middle ground that’s just mind numbing and unfun. Combine that with several extended horrible turret sections and the game just really doesn’t excel at anything.
The last thing I’ll touch on is the crafting which is broken. You get salvage from every enemy killed and the rest are marked on your mini map so you end up with an excessive amount to craft basically infinite medpacks and ammo so you can cheese your way through the game soaking up tons of damage. Unfortunately this is how I played the last couple hours because trying to play slow and methodically just didn’t work and was boring me to death.

I wanted to like this game and the goofy comic book adaptation has some charm but sadly I can’t recommend this unless you’re super curious or a fan of the comics. It’s just barely passable.
4/10

DISCLAIMER before I gush about this game:
This game has maybe the worst voice acting I’ve heard in a game since the original Resident Evil, the script is bizarre with more focus on weird character moments than the plot, the combat isn’t super deep, there aren’t endless unlockable weapons and combos, it’s extremely linear with no platforming or exploration, and the game is pretty short at around 6 hours for a first playthrough.

Now with all of that out of the way: I adore this game and it’s disappointing seeing so many mainstream critics seemingly not even give this a chance. This is especially difficult when the industry is in desperate need of more throwback action games like this.

This game meshes pretty standard third person cover shooting systems seamlessly with visceral melee combat. You are armed with a katana to parry enemies, slash and block. You also have an assault rifle at all times which you can customize with various attachments as you progress. You’re secondary weapon is whatever you pick up from slain enemies and can range from shotguns, LMGs, grenade launchers to rocket launchers. Your third gun is your sidearm that you also have at all times but it operates with a face button you tap to fire a quick shot to stagger enemies, keep your combo going or break enemy charge attacks. A few rare occasions will also let you go to work with a huge chainsaw.

As you progress you’ll unlock various abilities that keep the gameplay fresh like a charge attack, slide attack, grenades and even bullet time. None of these are super deep and I kinda wish there were a few more combos or juggles but everything is fluid and useful.

The biggest draw to the combat is the stylish finishing moves that are usually jiu jitsui take downs. It’s all awesomely gory gun-fu and this is the closest thing we have so far to a John Wick video game.

Gameplay pretty much consists of pushing forward killing enemies room by room till you reach the next checkpoint or end of level boss. The enemies range from different knife wielding enemies, synthetics, gunners, ninjas and large foes in mech suits. It’s not a ton of variety but there’s just enough and enough remixed combinations of enemies to keep you on your toes. The first boss fight is meh but I thought all the others were really good.

This is a weird game that leans into its quirkiness with several mini games to break up all the combat. These include karaoke, ramen eating, an arcade cabinet and a gun range similar to RE4’s. They’re all nice distractions and are accessible at all times to go back and try to beat your previous score. There are also training levels that are scored and new game plus with additional difficulties to give some replay value and make up for the relatively short length of the campaign.
The story isn’t fleshed out much at all but there are a ton of revelations and plot threads left dangling in the last few minutes of the game so I really pray this game can find a cult following and a way to get a sequel made.
This game may not be the most polished and definitely isn’t to everyone’s taste but fans of 6th gen character action games should definitely give this a shot. The difficulty is pretty high on normal but I’m really looking forward to playing again on hard and Japanese hard. This is my sleeper hit of the year so far.
8/10

Kane and Lynch are back and this time the game is MUCH better. This game is what I was hoping the first one that I reviewed a couple weeks ago was going to be and I can understand this game’s cult following now.

Everything has been improved this time around. The shooting feels much better with all the different guns feeling very different with more realistic bullet spread and recoil.
The developers added a button toggle to the cover system that makes it much more fluid and gives you the ability to swap cover and push out from cover to sprint into the next advanced postion.
The level design is also improved with tighter areas that enhance the game’s strength with tons of cover and lanes that facilitate flanking nicely while you play co-op.

The biggest improvement tho overall is the bat shit insane story and the presentation. The shaky cam might not be for everything but I thought it really enhanced the game and made it more vicseral. The whole game felt dirty and nasty like I was the camera man for a snuff film following these two psychos on their rampage through the neon backdrop of Shanghai. I love how violent this game and all the camera work, neon lights and blurred censoring of the most violent parts gives it an incredibly fresh and unique aesthetic that the first one was missing.

The game is short and wraps up at the perfect time with no major dips in quality. My biggest negatives are I encountered several severe audio glitches and had the game crash twice. The gameplay is nothing special but it’s a solid cover shooter enhanced by its amazing paint job. It doesn’t do anything new or redefine the genre in anyway but it’s easy to recommend to anyone especially if they can play with a buddy in a single sitting.
6/10

Another hit from Shinji Mikami. While this definitely isn’t his magnum opus it stands close to the top of the third person shooter genre.

I’m not a huge cover shooter fan as I find them too slow paced, dull moment to moment gameplay sitting behind cover waiting for health to recharge, and problems with the gunplay. This game definitely alleviates those complaints with the slow mo and sliding mechanics that make the game much more fast paced that a traditional cover shooter and lets you adapt your tactics on the fly. There’s no “right way” to play this game because each situation the game presents you with will have you making constant decisions on the fly either taking cover or pressing out into the open to slide behind enemies or to better tactical positions.
The gameplay stays fresh for the brisk 4 hours it took me to beat this and there are just enough guns and just enough enemy types/bosses for the player to stay engaged. This is definitely a game meant to be played multiple times as there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve at the beginning but once you get the hang of the mechanics you’ll want to come back because the gameplay is extremely satisfying as you get better at it.

My main complaints with this one are all pretty minor.
A wish there were a few less cutscenes and first person walking sections which are really just cutscenes. They make the pacing a bit choppy especially with how short some checkpoints are.

I also wish the game let you manage your cool down when your health hits critical. I get that it’s supposed to be punishing but I think the risk reward of letting the player manage the cooldown themselves instead of it automatically also going into overheat can be frustrating.
Lastly I wish the upgrade system was different. As you upgrade weapons in your inventory you’ll also lose upgrades upon death which is very punishing. I wish the game found a way to reward you for not dying vs punishing you for dying.

Oh and the most minor of my gripes is I wish each chapter gave you a letter score just because I have no idea how my scores for each mission stack up.

I’ll definitely be coming back to this one on a harder difficulty and compete against myself to set new high scores and maybe try a no death run.

Really wish this had become a franchise because the story although over the top and a bit cliche was pretty fun and the unresolved plot lines would have been cool to see fleshed out in a sequel. Sam kicks ass

8/10